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ToriKat
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#1
Old 01-19-2008, 07:35 PM

In response to all of the varying discussions and questions about art programs, here is the official sticky to talk about anything and everything about them!


Some points for discussion, but you are not limited to them:
  • Which art programs do you use? Which don't you like? Why?
  • What are the pros and cons of each of them?
  • What do you use to mimic traditional styles? Pixel? CG in general?
  • What are some techniques or tricks you use?

Also, any of the above that you copy and paste must be put into the quotes tag.

Tal Blaiser
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#2
Old 01-22-2008, 07:34 AM

Quote:
* Which art programs do you use? Which don't you like? Why?
Photoshop CS3 & MS-Paint are the art programs I use, I haven't tried other program yet, so I have no idea which one I don't like.

Quote:
* What are the pros and cons of each of them?
Both are good, Photoshop for CGing vexel but cannot create any vector... I still saving for an illustrator. MS-Paint is good for Pixel illustrations.

Quote:
* What do you use to mimic traditional styles? Pixel? CG in general?
I'm really a traditional artist, so I didn't tried to mimic traditional style on my digital illustrations... I'll just grab my brush/pencils/pastels and paint/draw on paper or canvas :D

Quote:
* What are some techniques or tricks you use?
Heee, I've been using these program only for a year now, and I haven't discovered any tricks with it, I still use the brush, eraser, layers and pen-tool[just applying my traditional theories]

Suspense
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#3
Old 01-31-2008, 06:56 PM

I usually use paint to pixel and open canvas to doodle xD

I have adobe photoshop, but everything is in Czech :3 Does anyone have ANY idea how to change the language of the program? (I cant understand much of it so I wouldn't be able to tell) xD

ToriKat
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#4
Old 02-02-2008, 10:10 AM

@Suspense: After Googling, I found this page with a guy asking about the same question. Scroll down for the answer and see if the advice is helpful at all?

How did you even get the Czech version? *blinks*

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#5
Old 02-02-2008, 03:12 PM

Thanks ^^ I'm trying to follow the instructions now xDD <3

Well my friends uncle came from Czech Republic with a bunch of CDs and they gave me one for free :3

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#6
Old 02-13-2008, 12:33 PM

yeah i use MS Paint to make the pixels and then cut and paste them and get them adjusted in adobe imageready.

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#7
Old 04-17-2008, 01:05 PM

I use photoshop mostly, and fireworks for pixel animation. (and flash for other animations.) I really don't like Corel Painter :? it's not easy to use, the brushes confuse me, and the whole layout is just not easily accessible. It's not much better than GIMP, yet it costs like 100$.

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#8
Old 04-19-2008, 03:47 AM

Quote:
* Which art programs do you use? Which don't you like? Why?
I normally use things like Deleter CG Illustrator and Adobe 7. There aren't really any programs I dislike.

Quote:
* What are the pros and cons of each of them?
Adobe 7 is very flexible, you can basically create anything on there, the only problem I have with it is that I'm not good with handling its pressure sensitivity.

Deleter CG is a lot like Open Canvas, and it's simple and easy to use when creating sketches or clean cg art. It's not very good with pressure sensitivity on the line art and it lacks many useful tools.

Quote:
* What do you use to mimic traditional styles?
Various brushes. Deleter even has a watercolor brush. And then I also texturize.

Quote:
* What are some techniques or tricks you use?
I don't use any really.

Last edited by Blondheart; 06-18-2008 at 09:40 PM.. Reason: Didn't quote spoons

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#9
Old 04-20-2008, 10:18 PM

Quote:
Which art programs do you use? Which don't you like? Why?

I use either PS7 or CS because I have been using it for the last 3.5-4 years, so I got use to it.. mainly because I know how each tool works so it makes everything easier for me when I start drawing/colouring.

I don't think I have any programs I dislike

Quote:
What are the pros and cons of each of them?
The good thing for PS is that its easy to understand.. everything is neat and straight forward.. as for cons.. it just lag my computer when I open it.. other than that I don't have any negavtive point for it haha [I need a new computer]


Quote:
What are some techniques or tricks you use?
making lots of layers.. xD

Last edited by Blondheart; 06-18-2008 at 09:40 PM.. Reason: Didn't quote spoons

Minoru LaVerite
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#10
Old 05-22-2008, 09:27 PM

I use mainly photoshop... I have OpenCanvas but it confuses me with its brushes.

I think my favorite art program so far is SAI Paint Tool, but my trial for it ran out. ;___; It was the prettiest program everrrr--everything was so organized and user-friendly, and the lines came out so crisp and smooth so it was excellent for lineart. Its waterbrush tool was also really great for blending colors. I miss SAI. Dx

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#11
Old 05-26-2008, 09:32 PM

I use Photoshop CS2~ Sometimes Flash for doodling and animations. I really want OpenCanvas though ;__;

Well Photoshop has all the tools and such, and I'm used to using it. Flash gets confusing for me Px But it gives nice cartoony lineart.

Techniques and tricks? Hmm well does opacity count? x'D and I've fallen in love with cell shading recently. Have yet to master texturing though Px

Sweet Summer Day
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#12
Old 06-02-2008, 09:26 PM

what are some other programs?

that are free?

ToriKat
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#13
Old 06-11-2008, 04:51 AM

Here's a list of free ones. ^^ There are probably a multitude more out there.

openCanvas 1.1 http://wistinga.online.fr/opencanvas/
GIMP http://www.gimp.org/
Artrage http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html
Pixia http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/
Artweaver http://www.artweaver.de/index.php?en_version

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#14
Old 06-13-2008, 07:19 PM

i'm going to the Art Institute of York next week for about 3 days, it only cost me and my mother about 100$

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#15
Old 06-14-2008, 01:36 AM

I use Photoshop CS and Sai to color. I used to use only photoshop, but recently I've been using Sai a lot. There is a TON of things that can be done with photoshop. When it comes to filters and effects Photoshop is the best. Sai however I think is wonderful! <3 It beats photoshop for just siting around doodling. The pen smoothing on Sai makes it so much easier to ink things. I also love how simple it is to make a work that looks almost hand painted. >,> Price is great too. My licensed copy was like $51

Photoshop:
Pro: Lots of options, extremely powerful for art and web content.
Con: Price. I think even my student copy set me back $500 for the entire suit. Pen smoothing is not very good.

Sai:
Pros: Awesome drawing tool geared especially towards artists. Easy to use and is very intuitive. It carries a lot of features similar to Photoshop and painter. IT HAS LAYER MASKS! <3 I use that a lot in photoshop. CHEAP. Thats important. Not many people have $500 sitting around to blow.
Cons: None really. Less layer effects, but you don't really need them.

Mistress Vain
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#16
Old 08-06-2008, 03:59 PM

Here's the list of art programs I've used before:
-Photoshop (CS+)
-Illustrator (CS2+)
-OpenCanvas (4+)
-Paint Tool SAI
-Paint.NET (free)
-Painter Essentials
-Photoshop Elements
-Inkscape (free)
-GIMP (and GIMPshop) (free)
-Manga Studio Debut
-Flash (MX 2004+)
-InkArt
-MS Paint

My favorite program for sketching is OpenCanvas. It makes smooth, pencil-like lines for easy sketching.

My favorite programs for inking are Paint.NET and SAI. Anti-aliasing makes for professional and smooth lines.

My favorite programs for coloring are SAI and Photoshop. SAI is easy to use for painting and Photoshop is flexible and versatile to fit any style.

Overall, I just use Photoshop for everything.

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#17
Old 08-06-2008, 07:38 PM

I use openCanvas (4.5 plus) for pretty much everything. It was only 65 dollars to buy and I really like the school pen and the watercolour brushes it has.

I have corel Painter Essentials too, but I never really got the hang of using it. I've also tried photoshop and paint shop pro, but I mainly used PSP for graphics and I found photoshop a bit confusing plus the cost of it is way too much for me to spend any time soon.

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#18
Old 08-11-2008, 04:22 AM

Quote:
Which art programs do you use? Which don't you like? Why?
I use Photo Shop 7, Sai, and sometimes open Canvas 1.1.
If I didn't like themn I wouldn't have them xD!
Photoshop is just a really good coloring program with graphics. It's nice for adjusting things and coloring in general. You must have a lot of practice though, I'm still struggling with it. Sai is a program I mostly use for inking pictures but can be skillfully used in coloring, it's a nice alternative to more expensive programs. open Canvas is recomended before you use Photo Shop because it helps you not get used to tools people SHOLDN'T use in PS.


Quote:
What are the pros and cons of each of them?
PS PROS: Good once you get the hang of it, variety of tools, compatible with scanners to make nice direct transfers and adjustments.
PS CONS: Tablets aren't as smooth and you need to make a lot of adjustments if you plan to only use photoshop for inking. Can be really confusing for a beginner but I think it's best to just dive in and mess around.:)

I don't know enough about sai to give pros and cons but oC 1 is too basic for me to judge too.


Quote:
What do you use to mimic traditional styles? Pixel? CG in general?
oC is the best IMO

Quote:
What are some techniques or tricks you use?
Adjusting FLOW and OPACITY gives MUCH more depth to shading pictures. ALWAYS use layers and LABEL them so you know what everything is and where it is.

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#19
Old 08-21-2008, 02:05 PM

I like to use Corel Painter Essentials 3 for drawing in. It just seems way smoother then Photoshop and the results look better. I also use Corel when I'm shading something in black and white. I don't think I've ever tried coloring on Corel, but I do that in Photoshop. I also use Photoshop for adding text to pictures. What I don't like about Corel is that you can't change the layer types, so you can't color a picture unless you redraw all the lines onto a different layer (as far as I know).

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#20
Old 01-02-2009, 10:25 PM

Quote:
• Which art programs do you use? Which don't you like? Why?
|~| Paint Shop Pro 9 or 10
Pro: has practically everything Photoshop does
Con: no animation power, filters are more tricky IMO, limited vector options

|~| Animation Pro 3
Pro: Some animation effects are nifty
Con: It's complicated to look at the frames you want to Xp

|~| Photoshop
Pro: Has so many options, animations, 1px brush still spreads further than that
Con: 1px brush still spreads further than that, vector ability is limited

|~| GIMP 2
Pro: excellent brushes, free program
Con: tool properties don't have some adjustments you wish it did, multiple windows interface

|~| Macromedia Fireworks
Pro: great for vector, websites, and icons
Con: not the best tool for photo editing or much else raster

|~| MS Paint
Quote:
• What are the pros and cons of each of them?
I discuss that in tiny text addtions under the names
Quote:
• What do you use to mimic traditional styles? Pixel? CG in general?
CG is best with Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro when working with anything raster BUT Fireworks is better for vectors and icons in my opinion

Pixel is what MS Paint does best. (except selecting colors is tedious)

Traditional? well I've not tried that on a program.
Quote:
• What are some techniques or tricks you use?
...should I make a tutorial? XD
Okay, so I do some manipulation in layer order for like avatar art. When I"m making signatures I might break the base picture in sections. Opacity is handy when using fractal and shading. Plus signatures are not complete without borders.

But the greatest trick of all is: ctrl+z Didn't know that did ya?! :o

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#21
Old 01-25-2009, 08:57 PM

  1. I've used a variety of programs. Most of the Adobe programs, a little bit of Flash, 2 Corel programs that I can't remember the names of, Gimp, Inkscape (kind of like Adobe Illustrator), Open Canvas, and SAI.
  2. Adobe's Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are profession program and are more well known and have more tutorials and add-on that can be found printed or on the web that you really can't go wrong. =3 They'll service to what you need for the most part, but they're expensive. Skipping flash and Corel (since I barely remember them) Gimp is decent for CG and it's free, but it doesn't function with tablets, so that's my only pet peeve as my current favourite piece was done in it. Inkscape is a lot like Illustrator, but free and a pain as sometimes when trying to save in a readable file type your text and images don't come out right. It works if you need it. I haven't play much with Open Canvas, but SAI I'm starting to like. I'm still adjusting to the brush setting and my only annoyance is it sees my mouse as my pen when it's on my tablet, and only doesn't when I switch what program I'm looking at.
  3. I haven't tried 'traditional' on any program, but my traditional painting style tends to bleed in my my CG now a days. I don't do pixel, but I think I had a program for that once. :? Up until this point I've CG in Photoshop, though I might switch to SAI.
  4. Ummm tips? Well in Photoshop, I layer each section that I CG. I usually use only one colour for the each (example one for hair, skins, eyes) and just change the brush setting to multiply to darken and screen for highlight, and lower the opacity from a range of 10-60% depending. I use the line art as a guideline, not the final decision. A lot of the time I let the colours and shadows define my piece.

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#22
Old 06-03-2009, 07:32 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by ToriKat View Post
  • Which art programs do you use? Which don't you like? Why?
  • What are the pros and cons of each of them?
  • What do you use to mimic traditional styles? Pixel? CG in general?
  • What are some techniques or tricks you use?


My main art program, the default industrial standard, the king, the one that rule them all, the one that can get you jobs: Photoshop

Photoshop can do everything but it's not quick to learn. To learn it quick, one must have some one to ask questions. The other drawback to Photoshop is the retail price of 699.00 or 249.00 for students.

Note: Adobe is confusing the crap out of people by renaming the various versions "CS number" as oppose to Photoshop 7, 8, 9, etc. Adobe's "Creative Suite" can refer to their -entire- software package....or "Photoshop CS" is their single Photoshop program.



Photoshop Elements, +90% of Photoshop CS BUT only 79.00 (OfficeMax, Depot, Staples, Best Buy, etc). My opinion, PS Elements IS too much for most of you. I'm willing to bet that most people who use PS CS (the full version of Photoshop) can't even tell you the features in CS. Save your money, get Photoshop Elements... on sale occasionally for 69.00



Painter Essentials...it's 50.00, I think. Originally created for the Mac, it mimics the look and results of 'natural media'. I just bought a copy from an online auction for 20.00.... it's everything I remember it to be (I had Painter 3...with it's 'Net Paint' or 'party room' painting function). Current 'full' version of Painter is 11. Essentials is on 4, i think.



Manga Studio ("Comic Studio" in the original Japanese name) Debute 3 and 4. I just bought these two software (online auction). I'm playing with 4 and it does live up to all it's hype!

It's a software with an interface similar to the standard PHotoshop. Manga Studio was designed with a single purpose.....to create comic book pages, nothing else.

Time consuming things like SPEEDLINES, TONES, PATTERNS, BACKGROUND are lighting fast! There are 1800 of these textures in Debute 4.....use it to your heart's content. 50.00 is a great cheap for what it does (I'd paid 20.00 for each of mine).



GIMP FREE powerful open source graphics manipulation program...similar to what photoshop does but it's interface is pretty lame.

Allow me to defend my opinion. Since Photoshop is king, it's interface is an accepted reference point that all graphic software should imitate. It's taught in school, it's used in studios and art houses (ILM, Digital Domain, Dreamworks, Lucas Film, Peter Jackson, etc, etc). Any program that offers a 'new' and 'improved' User Interface without justifying it or reason will break the work flow. In other words: you have a greater chance of getting a job in any studio if you know photoshop... you can't say that by only knowing GIMP.

How would you like to waste your time learning how to use a program than using your time to create art? A well design tool is suppose to get out of your way of creating good art. Right?

With that said, there is a version of GIMP that mimic Photoshop's UI.... www.gimpshop.com IT IS FREE!!! Take it out for a test! It comes on Linus, MAC and windows



Illustrator....vector base program. I bought mine for 50.00. Adobe allows people to transfer their serial number to a new owner. It's VECTOR, similar to a Corel Draw.... no, it's BETTER than Corel Draw because Corel's user interface SUCK!

Illustrator has a very similar UI to Photoshop, the industrial standard. Enough said....

Vector base programs has it's advantages over RASTER (pixel base...like Photoshop, GIMP, Paint, etc). The drawings is represented as lines, curves, points and vectors (think geometry). By doing so, each image has a smaller file size. The biggest advantage of VECTOR is it's infinite scaling (zooming in or enlarging) WITHOUT pixellating (the 'jaggy' staircase-like edges). The image remains sharp (like Mac's Quarts Extreme...which is VECTOR)




OpenCanvas 1.1 (this is the last of the FREE version) It has similarities to both Photoshop and Painter. The UI is mostly consistent with PHotoshop and Painter.

My initial impression is this software (v1.1, the FREE version) has lots of potential but it's not as "loaded" with features like PHotoshop ELEMENTS.

This is an UNFAIR comparison since 1.1 is an old version and ELEMENT is on v.7 and it's base on the longer established Photoshop. The current version of OC is 4.5. It's competitively priced (cheap!) at ¥6,000 and ¥8,000 (about $60.00 & $80.00) compared to Photoshop ELEMENT at $99.00 retail.

Personal note: I have this installed on my Windows machine. I don't have the motivation to use this program since I do most of my work on my Mac. There wasn't anything in OC that made me scream "I GOTTA USE THIS!". I get all my needs from my Painter Essential 4, Photoshop Elements 6, Manga STudio Debute 4





I guess I'm done for the moment. Here are a few personal thoughts, tips, advice, suggestions...... Most of these are personal opinions...which you can ignore. Some are REAL advice that you SHOULD NOT IGNORE.

1, Photoshop NEEDS Hard Drive space....LOTS of it. It's almost MORE important than RAM. Photoshop uses hard drive space as a "SCRATCH DISK". It's a place where it stores all your DOs and UN-DOs....all the way to the beginning. It lets Photoshop organize itself better...it increase your SPEED of the program.

When you set up Photoshop, ideally, you should have TWO physical hard drive....NOT two partitions on ONE hard drive. IF you don't have TWO hard drives, THEN just use what you have...it's fine. It will slow you down a bit.


2, Do NOT get hyped on the latest version of software! It's expensive. You can buy USED copies of older versions and have the serial numbers transfer to you.

Here is a TEST: If you can't name the features in the latest version, then you shouldn't be wasting time and money trying to get it (paying for it or WAREZing it).

Real life example.... I had PHotoshop 3....4 was coming out. 3 does NOT have multi UN-DO. Everyone was hoping 4 has MULTI UN-DO...it did NOT. 4 was ignored until version 5, which does have Multi UN-DOs.

Also, new versions can be resource hogs.... It will slow down your system. Windows 6/Vista/Longhorn?


3, IF you're an artist, THEN....SHUT OFF the TV and game system.


4, IF you want to be serious and be taken seriously as an artist, THEN work on real life anatomy! This bugs me the most! Even if you plan on drawing manga/anime all your life.... especially if you want to draw anime/manga for the rest of your life, you NEED to learn REAL human anatomy.


5, Last but not final......... IF you have NOT master PENCIL & PAPER, WHY do you want to waste time and money getting expensive software and drawing tablet?

Getting a sports car does NOT make you a racer. Buying expensive software does NOT make you an instant artist.

IF you can't draw decently with a pencil and paper, THEN by buying 100.00 software will only mean: You own a 100.00 software, you're 100.00 poorer, and you still suck at art while just wasted 100.00. (Or 50.00.....or whatever)






Alpha

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#23
Old 06-04-2009, 09:15 PM

...long previous post is loooong.... :|

I mostly use Paint Tool Sai and sometimes I use photoshop if something needs to be tweaked (like colors n such). The con to Sai is that it isnt as complex as CS3 or anything, but the pro is that it is small in size yet the features are awesome. Its tools give great results. The pen tool for example, it gives such smooth lines which makes the program great for cartooning and making linearts. Having a tablet is highly recommended...for one, its common sense and two...the pressure sensitivity in the program is heavenly. The smudge tool pwns photoshop's, but I prefer to blend by lowering the density of the pen tool. Not to mention, for a program which is as great as it is, Sai is only like 50-something USD.

Last edited by Chickie Nuggs; 06-04-2009 at 09:19 PM..

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#24
Old 08-07-2009, 12:33 PM

I use Corel painter. It's more of an artistic program. It has a lot of features supporting the artistic side of digital art. I don't prefer using photoshop.. With me, it doesn't really make me feel that i'm focusing on using the proper brush tool to make art. I think they made it mainly for photo manipulation >_>.. Corel jus' makes me feel that i'm actually holding a brush, pencil, etc. Corel painter is amazing for traditional art like effects because of the various brushes and settings that come along with it. As for pixels, i used graphicsgale. It is one great software for pixeling and animating pixels. I've recently downloaded GIMP? I somewhat find it hard to use but it's cool with the pixeling. Hm, i don't really have much use with the tricks. I like it when i do the line art after coloring my drawings. I do it backwards.

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#25
Old 08-25-2009, 06:49 AM

Eh. I just have a question. Where can I get a free trial of sai painter? :|

 


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